Finance Ministry: No order for Tabung Haji monopoly of umrah

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — Claims that Muslims may only arrange for their minor umrah pilgrimage through Lembaga Tabung Haji are false, said the Finance Ministry.

The ministry issued the statement in response to a post on the Malaysia Today blog claiming that Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng issued a directive to bar travel agencies from arranging these.

“The accusation has been thrown by these irresponsible parties are baseless and MoF has never issued any statement on the matter,” the ministry said in a statement today.

“The propagation of this false news report only aim solely to arouse public anger and incite hatred against a non-Muslim Finance Minister, for supposedly intervening in matters of Islamic affairs,” the ministry added.

The ministry said it has lodged reports with the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission over the blog post titled Guan Eng will kill Malay Businesses as well as fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s posting of it on Facebook last Monday.